Apple Music & Beats 1

Rihab wrote:Thanks. But what does 'marketshare' mean in this case? Paid subscribers (a family of 4 = 1 subscriber)? Premium users (a family of 4 = 4 users)? Or tracks streamed?

In this case, they analyze the Top 25k streamed songs at each of the five services and determines the weight everyone of them has in the industry. For example, based on that research, If 'Despacito' had 1,000,000 streams last week (not real numbers, of course), then 620,000 streams comes from Spotify, 250,000 from Apple Music, 80,000 from Amazon and so on.

Every user has a different value. Spotify stated that paid subscribers are responsible of 70% of their daily streams. Also, Apple Music subscribers are the most active as we saw during many Apple Music exclusives.

When a platform says "paid subscribers" they don't disclose If its an individual subscriber or a family plan with 6 possible members. I would love to know that info and also how many daily streams have other services, they should make a public update everyday like Spotify does.

"iTunes may be struggling a little when it comes to video content, but Apple Music has helped U.S. audio streaming hit a record high of 7.5B weekly streams. The stat was achieved in March, according to Nielsen’s mid-year report on the music industry …

So I jumped ship from Spotify to Apple Music yesterday and I'm loving it so far. The slightly larger song catalogue and the fact you can get an individual annual membership for £99 instead of paying £9.99 a month is what persuaded me. Paying annually gives you 12 months for the price of 10.

I've already rediscovered tons of forgotten album tracks thanks to the 'create station' function when you play a song.

We'll that stat is no surprise. But it doesn't make any sense to display it without taking into consideration how much Spotify pays out in total. There are studies that show that free users are converted to premium users. Also: free streams > pirate downloads.

And in the end: The services do not pay out to musicians. They pay out to the right holders (the labels and publishers). If the labels have unfair contracts with their artists and take most of the cash, it's not Spotify's fault.

I'm happy though that there is Apple Music and Amazon Music as competition is important. But I'm also happy there is Spotify that show the big A companies Apple, Amazon and Alphabet how it's done in the first place.

"In the next iteration, users will be able to create an Apple Music profile to share recently played tracks, albums, playlists, and musical tastes with friends. In iOS 11, Siri becomes a DJ and uses your taste if you tell it “play something I like.”"

"Apple Music continues to grow, Billboard reporting that it has now hit 30M paid subscribers – up from 27M in June. But Jimmy Iovine, who heads up the service, thinks what Apple is offering to subscribers isn’t yet good enough.

Lovine told Billboard that he thinks the service is heading in the right direction, but that all streaming music services need to do more to ensure their future."

"Under pressure from the music labels and Apple Music, Billboard magazine is ending its practice of giving equal weight to paid streams and free streams in its music charts."

"Jimmy Iovine, who is head of Apple Music, has been arguing against YouTube growing its influence.

He told NBC News that artists say they work with YouTube to promote their records because it currently counts the same as a paid stream. “How can the record industry let that go down? It is not in their interest to promote a free tier.” He also described YouTube as “fake news,” meaning that its traffic is open to manipulation.

Iovine said he’s been in discussion with Billboard on the topic and says the music industry should be all pulling in the same direction, supporting ways of getting artists paid.

The music labels receive a much bigger cut from paid streaming services than they do from YouTube’s advertising. Independent labels have also been agitating for change."

Finally this YouTube nonsense will end for good. It's unfair that free streams have the same value for the charts than Apple Music or Spotify Premium. Also, YouTube pays just a few bucks when Apple Music is paying exactly x10 and Spotify x5.

Apple Music to overtake Spotify in US subscribers this summer as it hits 36M globally

“While Spotify has long-held a lead over Apple in streaming music subscribers, the gap between the two is slowly narrowing, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The report, citing “people in the record business,” explains that Apple Music is adding subscribers in the United States at a faster rate than Spotify.

Apple Music has been adding new subscribers at a 5 percent monthly rate, whereas Spotify is growing at a slower 2 percent rate. If those rates hold steady through the coming months, Apple Music will overtake Spotify in terms of U.S. subscriber count by this summer.

Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal says Apple has confirmed that it now has 36 million paying Apple Music subscribers. That number is up from the 30 million Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine had previously touted last September.“

I had a three month trial with Apple Music but ultimately went back to Spotify as I found the playlists on there a lot better and the song radio function more diverse.

The range of genre radio stations in Apple Music is fantastic though and unrivalled and worth the subscription price alone. I spent many hours listening to the "Pure Pop" and "Adult Alternative" stations.